Flood Tourism, 1913

At Cincinnati, in particular, seeing the floods each year is a fad with a large percentage of the dwellers in the Queen City and Covington and Newport, which lie just across the Ohio in Kentucky - and practically all these folks flock to the suspension bridge, walking across in one direction, then boarding a street car whose route parallels the river, in order to get views in greater comfort, and then riding back and across the bridge in the cars.  During the recent flood, in one day 15,000 people walked.  The exact number who took the street cars to see the flood from the bridge is not knowable, but bridge authorities state that it will usually be about equal.  This is because the flood seldom reaches the bridges - only once did it get so high, and then but for a matter of a hundred feet - and so one can see the flood safely.

from The Bridgemen's Magazine, January, 1913